As the weather heats up, so does the competition for events. With a huge lineup of festivals dropping in Australia’s sunny season, how can you ensure that your event makes the cut for attendees this summer?

To stand out in a crowded market, you need to offer an event that is fresh and will drive serious FOMO (fear of missing out). Read on to uncover three ideas for selling out your event this summer.

1. Tap into fresh trends from the Northern Hemisphere

Remember when we had to wait forever for the hottest TV shows and movies to come to Australia? The internet took care of that. Now we can watch the latest episode of Games of Thrones within hours of the premiere in North America.

This appetite for global entertainment trends can also be applied to events. Thanks to social media, Australians get an instant update of what is hot overseas, and increasingly expect that they will see the same standard of entertainment/fashion/food when summer arrives down under.

With the summer festival season wrapping up in the Northern Hemisphere, now is the perfect time to take a look at what was hot (or not) at recent outdoor festivals. Use online search and social media to research events like yours that took place over the US/UK summer and see what had everyone talking.

Focus on what worked for events in your target demographic, but don’t forget to pay attention to current global and local movements such as:

2. Use the ‘silly season’ to your advantage

We’ve all experienced the social pressures of the ‘silly season’ — with the end of the year looming like a deadline to see every friend, colleague, and family member we have. This could be seen as more competition for your event, or you could use it to your advantage. People want to catch up with their friends over summer, so give them an unforgettable place to do it.

An Eventbrite survey revealed that 48% of Aussie millennials believe that some of their best memories come from an event they attended, and agree that attending events with family and friends deepens their personal relationships. If your event is designed and marketed toward making memories this summer, you could attract larger groups and sell more tickets.

To super-charge your ticket sales, sell directly through social media. This captures people in the same place where they engaged with friends and make plans, encouraging them to purchase sooner and invite a group.

3. Lure older Millennials with family-friendly features

Can you imagine keeping a child entertained for six weeks straight? If you have kids, you’ll already know that this is the reality faced by parents across Australia every year when school breaks for summer. Eager to get their kids away from screens, this is a market seeking outdoor events to attend.

Once upon a time, “family-friendly” meant that kids were catered for, with very little on offer to interest their parents. This is shifting now, as the event-loving Generation Y are having families and want to continue enjoying live experiences they love, with the brood in-tow. Eventbrite research found that more than two thirds (68%) of Aussie Millennials are attending more daytime, family-suitable events on the weekend now than they did five years ago, a trend driven by the older 26-34 year old Millennials (73%).

Why lose loyal attendees as their lives begin to shift? Keep them by catering to the millennial parent market.

You don’t need to invite the chaos of a McDonald’s playground into your event to accommodate younger revelers. There are plenty of simple tweaks that event creators can make to existing adult-focused events to capture the parent market. For example, summer music festival Rainbow Serpent have introduced a Kids Space with music and performance activities for little ones and a dedicated Family Camping zone with reduced noise late at night.